April 2005 Milage - Click to enlarge photo by d. scott gregory

Welp, I've managed to outdo myself this week - and this month with cycling training in mileage. So far, totals are for this week - 331 miles (533 kilometers), for the month of April - 1,332 miles (2,143 kilometers), and sum total for the year to date - 4,417 miles (7,108 kilometers). Conversions courtesy from Online Conversions

I feel both excited and exhausted. You know that feeling when you finish up a very long bike ride (or anything physically challenging - endurance level for 2+ hours), you get that feeling of elation, an endorphin high - a lactic acid buzz, then with a "cooldown" period when you just crash. I'm at that state tonight. I have to do my third set of stretches - then I'm cool.

Today was one busy ass day. Spent the morning doing domestic stuff, and preparing for the afternoon of biking. It was pouring rain, so I finished my errands and stopped by the bike shop (I have a special mechanic, "Bucky" who works on my bike - if I cannot adjust something) to get my triple chainring put on in preparation for the Mountains of Misery (which is almost 4 weeks to the day away). Not a simple procedure - I had to have my Ultegra double crank taken off, plus the splined bottom bracket, then the old unsplined square Truvativ bottom broacket which is for my triple chainring. The Triple chainring, I got new Ultegra chainrings for the crank arm, but we discovered that one of them was bent, fortunately, I had the original (albeit, heavier, more worn). All of which was put on, but the tuning/indexing is a total mess. Which is why I took it to Bucky. He literally spent over 2 hours tuning my bike. We'd tune it, then I'd go out and ride it then report back where it was skipping, or scuffing, or clicking - then I'd bring it back in and he'd make all sorts of precision adjustments, sometimes taking the whole drivetrain apart. They love my bike at that shop - we all sit around and talk about the Centuries, and training disasters. Good times. He finally finished up - and again..I mean again....he only charged me 20 bucks...I was like sheesh...that's all?....they give us hard core roadies a "discount" I suspect. I slipped a tip and then boned out. I'll go there next weekend for a quick adjustment after I put a "few" miles on it this week.

photo by d. scott gregory

I then drove out to Hamilton, so I could do some major hills - bike up to Hillsborough, near the West Virginia Border and do a mountanous loop twice. It was threatening to rain all alfternoon, it had tapered off late morning. Thunder in the distance...and seemed like I just kept missing the rain, roads damp, no rain. Finished 54 (hilly) miles without a drop of rain. I was soaked to the bone - I had on a long sleeve jersey, shorts, and a clear rain parka on..I sweat like a gallon. Was a pretty, albeit overcast/cloudy/stormy afternoon. I saw many deer (pictured) - very bold, right next to the road.

Came home - was late, had dinner than watched part of Ocean's 12 - damn, that movie sucked. Great cast, but crappy formulaic plot.

Tomorrow will be much of the same today - with the exception of needing to help my father with his yard, he has a foot injury which I don't want to get aggravated by mowing the lawn, so I'm gonna mow the entire thing (takes about 3 hours). Great excersize, and way to get some sun - sound familiar?

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Dogwoods in Spring - Click to enlarge photo by d. scott gregory

Definately Spring. The day was a horrid hell of allergies, rain, sun, horniness, upscale tendencies, biometric energy levels - and stress at work, rain on bike ride.

To be brief, twas a busy ass day. Work was a whirlwind of pretentious corporate jaugernautism. We just existed in that layer of "perception" and "stupidity", thank goodness doing serious business with the government is still less than 3D.

WOD from Ashburn to Leesburg Click to enlarge photo by d. scott gregory

I took a nice training ride (well, relaxing wind down ride) after yesterday's workout - I biked out to Hamilton and back - total of 42 miles. It was threatening to rain the entire time - right about 60 degrees. But it was a peacefull ride - not tooo many people out...just the hard core freaks. I snapped a few photos - of the dogwood trees that are still in bloom (pictured above, click for a detail, pops) and the other photo is a quick shot of the trail between Ashburn and Leesburg, VA...very straight trail...(same deal, click on photo to enlarge, pops new window).

FInished ride, came home...dinner, bike cleaning/lube, then laundry.....it's getting late. I have tons of domesticity over the weekend, teemed with a few training rides. Supposed to rain all weekend. Will be "fun".

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I am wiped out. Utterly spent. Work was fine, just another stressful day, yet productive. I prepared to leave early to meet up with my cycling club for a club ride. Man, those boys wear me out.

We headed out towards Ashburn to do a large loop, a few times - turning a 34.2 mile round trip close to 44 miles. It was nice cool weather, a little windy - and threatening to rain, which it didn't. Rode with the double BBs tonight - very fast group, and about 40 of us. Quite a site seeing all of in a huge paceline, or at an intersection turning - which is where one of my co-workers saw me. I know it was her with the custom plates, and her pressed up against the glass (as a passenger) trying to look for me in the mass of color.

I wasn't dropped, and was able to paceline up at the head of the herd. I was worried about my breathing because of the huge amount of pollen in the air, which posed problems all week and last. It will rain tomorrow night and this weekend. Thank goodness, my silver car looks metallic yellow with all the pollen.

Took a few mile spinning "warmdown" session with a few of the "tri" ladies (the local female pro Ironman triatheletes train with our club) - catching up on news of recent tri-trials, et al. Damn, these woman are in fantastic shape. They should be - to do three heavy endurance sports X 3, hence tri...wow. If I had better knees, or had a better boyancy for swimming, I swear I'd be doing duathalons, or triathalons**. They are super popular up here. I may be participating in a "tag team" triathalon later this summer, where I only do the cycling part of a team - there is a team member for each of the swimming and running.

**For those who don't know what an Ironman triathalon is: it's all day triple sport - usually consisting of a 3.8km (2.4 mile) swim, a 179.2km (112 mile) Century cycling ride and followed by a full running marathon of 42.2 km (26 miles).

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Welp, been one of those long drawn out work days - I'm exhausted. This whole week has drained me. But it sure was a pretty day out there, in the mid to high 60s, sparkling spring sky, a gentle breeze. And pollen, oh boy. Nothing like your lungs filtering heavy pollen during a training ride for two hours. I felt like I was horking up dry yellow powder while cycling. We need some rain bad, this tree/grass/flower sperm is gagging me.

Nothing exceptional at work other than the long ass day it presented. I was glad to go out on a training ride - a relaxing "off day", but the wind was killing me. I biked out to Purcellville and back - 44 total miles. The ride out was really windy, took me a long ass time to get out there - plus it's partially an invisible inclined grade going uphill. So the ride back is usually very quick, and with the wind pushing you - you fly like an eagle..to the sea...fly like an eagle like the spirit carying me....sheesh, I'm delerious enough to sing a Steve Miller tune.

I didn't get home til late - after dinner and domestic chores, no tv (heck, I can't remember watching any this week). I have been compiling my calendar for the season - in relation to a move and a vacation. Finished preparing my bike for tomorrow night's club training ride. Solid BB ride - I want to become an A rider before the end of the season.

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What a freakish day, of hours, mileage, commuting, beautiful weather, and then some. Early morning meeting, but took me a whopping 3 hours to hop-skip-jump NoVa commuter style to get to a meeting at 10am, I left at 7am. Took all morning through the afternoon, then another 2 hour drive back to the office in rush-hour, then an hour to finish up stuff. Like I said yesterday... 5 hours of commuting, traffic for a 4 hour window of actual work. Arrrg! Anyhow, it was really nice weather - in the low 70s/high 60s - very sunny.

I went on a really pleasant training ride out to Shirlington and back (44 miles) - albeit, "ghetto" to burbs to urban sprawl to farmland to more bling bling to less blingesque burbs, an olfactory cascade of pollen, dryer sheets and steak on the grill smell, it's still a nice diversion.

I am literally bushed, in fact - I saw a great bumper sticker yesterday, it simply said: </BUSH>

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As much I was dreading today, at work - it actually turned out to be pallatable. The day actually zipped by being in super dooper multitask freakazoid mode. All of a sudden it was almost 6pm, where did the time go?

The worst part of the day was trying to manage how 4 of us were to collectively meet at a 9am spot so we could all drive into the city during rush-hour for an onsite meeting with a client. Gotta love NoVA rush-hour. I need to leave the house at 7am, so I can meet up with the people in my office in 2 spots so we can meet in the city at 10am. A three hour commute for me to get to the meeting. That's almost half a work day. And I'm only going there. Once there, 2 hours of what we do, then the client will break for lunch while we continue working, then we continue working until @4pm, then we drive back to our home office in rush-hour traffic for another hour and a half. Then we will drop off our stuff, followup on emails, phone calls, et al. Leave the office @ 6:30pm. I will go out biking - the others will then go drive home in the rush-hour traffic, and get home @7-7:15pm. I will go on my evening cycling training for 2 hours - will get back to my car (still at the office)@ 8:30. I will drive home in light traffic, and be home after 9pm. 12 hours of a "work day", including the drive in - only 6 hours of actual work time, 6 hours in traffic.

So that was my day today (and a description of what I predict tomorrow will be), with the exception to the beautiful weather - a little on the chilly side, but a purdy one on the 44 miler I did this evening.

May 20th is Bike To Work Day, the ironic part is that I need to commute to work (no roads/highways I drive are bike compatable), then bike out to a "rest stop", then actually "bike to work". Shit, no wonder so few people do it. Granted my participation will raise awareness, I'll get a t-shirt - but the irony kills me.

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Today was just a weird day. Just creepy weird like that scary Burger King "Wake up to the King" commercial. I think it was the weather. It is Spring and the days just get more odd. It was freezing this morning, yet this time last week, it was almost in the 90s. And we have been having some wicked storms - like the ones I got stuck in on Friday, Saturday - and now (today) Sunday.

photo by d. scott gregory

Woke up relatively early for a Sunday, commenced on some domestic crap around the house - finally left at around noon and headed out to see some apartments in Ashburn and Herndon - which was almost a bust - I wish the people who show you the apartments tell you that there's a salary cap before they waste our time. Interesting, in Northern Virginia - outside of DC - if you make less than $37,500 a year - you are qualified for low income housing rentals.

I then headed out to Hamilton for a mountainous training ride - biked up into the Appalachian mountains, and licked the border of West Virginia. Then had a nice fast downhill back to Hamilton - of speed into the 50s.

Speaking of weather earlier - it was one minute sun shiny, but cloudy and windy - then all of a sudden it was a total downpour with lightning. The another point, there was a huge hail storm, dime sized hail was pinging me. I was all sloppy wet and cold, in long bike tights, light rain cover - and my cold/wet weather gloves. It was a miserable ride - but the burn of the hills in my legs and lungs felt great. I didn't bike too far, a measly 58 miles - far by mountainous standards.

photo by d. scott gregory

I finished up, then did a quick "trick" in the parking lot of changing my wet clothes into dry ones beneath a large towel, saw a few women grinning at me ..I just smiled and made them blush. Funny. Then drove home and finished a few other weekend chores, then cooked a great dinner (Pictured, but picture is horrible quality), Pasta with Chardonnay Garlic Butter Clam Sauce, covered in slices of Grilled Chicken. It was very tasty. Nothing better than a meal of that, with a cold glass of Chardonnay, after a nice shower following a long ass bike ride in the mountains in the rain (and hail).

Not looking forward to this week, gonna be a crappy one at work - overexpectations of an individual has caused much drama, I'll watch it unfold and then take action. "Oh the drama".

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